The acquisition of seismic data is an expensive undertaking and any time savings can amount to significant cost savings. One significant time saver has been the development of phase separated seismic prospecting which makes it possible to acquire seismic data from a number of shot points simultaneously to increase the number of shot points shaken in a day and ultimately substantially reduces the number of days to acquire the data for a survey area. While the amount of time that the vibes spend at a single shot point is longer, at the end of the series of sweeps, several shot points have been “completed” and the vibes move on to another setup of shot points to shake.
US Published Patent Application 2006/0164916A1 has suggested an interesting time saving plan where the listen time associated with sweep style seismic prospecting especially with phase-encoded, multiple source surveying, characterizing the procedure as using continuous sweeps with little or no “listening” time between sweeps. In reviewing the procedure proposed, a listen time is provided at the end of the sweeps. This eliminates or reduces the time in which the vibes are sitting and waiting between sweeps. While such listen time is not long in that it lasts from about four seconds to about 12 seconds between each sweep. Thus, for four sweeps, it adds about 12 seconds to about one minute for each setup. However, considering the costs associated with a survey, eliminating the time delay for listening may allow several dozen setups to be accomplished per day. Such setups may reduce the total time for an entire survey by one or two days to a week. At tens of thousands of dollars per day of surveying, this small efficiency improvement can provide considerable cost advantage over current systems.